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fuel prices

With constant fluctuations in price, fleet owners are becoming much more conscious of their fueling spend. Some may shop around to find more cost effective supply options, while others are looking at newer technologies to increase fuel efficiencies.Most of us have seen smart phone applications for everything it seems, but now trucking companies are more regularly looking into newer apps as a fuel optimization solution.Two companies in particular are setting the standard for over the road truckers in this category.

Many disruption scenarios can occur when a hurricane hits the U.S. directly. Whether it hits the Gulf Coast refineries and off shore oil rigs, New York Harbor refineries or the Carolina’s where there isn’t an energy infrastructure presence but a high density of population. I had the pleasure to meet with one of our experts, Mike Dombroski, Commercial Sales Account Manager to discuss in more detail how to better prepare and what could happen to fuel prices if you’re not ready.

On Saturday OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed to raise production by 1 million barrels per day (bpd). Perhaps more important than that, they agreed to return to 100% compliance of the previously agreed upon production cuts of 1.8 million bpd. Production was lagging from struggling countries, i.e., Venezuela, Angola and Libya which effectively equated to a production cut of 2.8 million bpd. Most notably, Reuters reports that Venezuela has been pumping more than 500,000 bpd less than its target. So, let’s clear up the math. OPEC and its non-OPEC partners are effectively saying they are going to be ramping up production by 2 million bpd, 1 million to make up for lost compliance and 1 million in additional capacity. How are the markets reacting? The Brent-WTI spread is getting slammed.

On May 22nd we were hoping for a market correction prior to the holiday weekend. On that day the front month NYMEX RBOB contract settled at $2.2636. Climbing from May 2nd, close @ $2.0803. A whooping $0.18 price move inflicting severe pain on your local gas station distributor leaving retail gasoline margins negative in some markets and begging the question, who wants to blink first and raise prices?

Guttman Energy Daily Market Update Disclaimer – The information contained in this market update is derived from sources believed to be reliable; however this update could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors and Guttman Energy does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or reliability of this update. FURTHERMORE, THIS UPDATE IS PROVIDED "AS IS," WHERE IS, WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. GUTTMAN ENERGY ALSO SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES. YOU USE THIS UPDATE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. This update and any view or comment expressed herein are provided for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted in any way as recommendation or inducement to buy or sell products, commodity futures or options contracts.

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